69th New York Infantry Regiment

The 69th New York Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment of the US Army which was raised in 1849. It was raised in New York City from Irish immigrants, many of whose soldiers and officers were veterans of the Young Irelander revolutionary cause during their struggle against the British. The regiment was rivals with the 71st New York Infantry Regiment, which was formed by nativists opposed to Catholic immigration, and it was the only Irish regiment not to be disbanded by 1858 as a result of ethnic tension and riots. Nicknamed the "Fighting Irish", the 69th New York was led by Michael Corcoran at the start of the American Civil War, and, after Corcoran was captured at the Frist Battle of Bull Run in 1861, Thomas Francis Meagher assumed command of the regiment. The regiment distinguished itself for its ferocity in battle, and it suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Fredericksburg in late 1862. At the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, it held the Wheatfield until it was overwhelmed. In June 1864, the regiment was disbanded, but it was raised again at summer's end as a regiment of the Irish Brigade, filled with new volunteers and draftees from New York's Irish ghettoes. It remained part of the New York National Guard after the war's end, and it was stationed along the Texas border in 1916 during the Mexican Revolution. During World War I, the regiment's ranks were filled by Irish-Americans and New Yorkers detailed from other brigades, and it was deployed to the Western Front in October 1917. It fought in the trenches of the Rouge Bouquet sector in France, and it stopped the German advance at the Second Battle of the Marne and later fought at the Battle of Chateau-Thierry and the Battle of St. Mihiel. Its final exploits came during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of 1918. By the time of the battle, its regiment's membership had gone from 85% Irish to 50%, with all three battalion adjutants being Jews, one lieutenant being born in Germany, and another lieutenant being an Oklahoma Choctaw, but it became a tradition that all who served in the regiment became honorary Irishmen. During World War II, the regiment again served with distinction on the Pacific front, fighting in the Battle of Makin, the Battle of Saipan, and the Battle of Okinawa, suffering 472 KIA during the war. In 2004, the regiment was federalized during the War on Terror, being deployed to Taji and Baghdad during the Iraq War and to the Hindu Kush during the Afghanistan War.